WEST LAFAYETTE — Rain drops rapidly fell from the sky, but nothing was going to put a damper on Tuesday morning.
After months of anticipation, head coach Barry Odom ran his first Purdue football practice.
The early morning rain went away long enough to get nearly two hours of work at Bimel Practice Complex before the rain returned near the conclusion of spring practice No. 1.
The Boilermakers didn’t wear pads, but there was definite angst just to be on the field.
“We’re here to play football and not just here to lift and get big,” offensive lineman Ethan Trent said. “So the first day is always super fun, and you’re always super eager. The first day is usually the easiest, just because you’re fresh.”
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What Barry Odom said about Purdue football’s first practice
Purdue’s roster has 40 new faces and names. And that’s just the players.
The coaches are mostly new to West Lafayette as well. After seven weeks of the strength and conditioning staff preparing Purdue’s football team, Tuesday was the beginning of what now becomes five weeks of spring football that concludes with the April 12 spring game.
On Wednesday, Purdue will have position meetings and weight training before resuming spring practice on Thursday.
Here’s three things Odom said about after day one.
∎ “We’ve got a long ways to go, but we’re making great progress. We’re certainly excited about some of the things we saw today on the first day of practice. On Thursday, we’ll look a heck of a lot better than we did today in every area from the head coach all the way down.”
∎ “The most enjoyable part of the day is the two hours and some change you get on the field with your team or in meetings. We’re teachers and the urgency we need to move with to move this program forward, we don’t have any time to waste.”
∎ “This is year 26 for me and I am more excited today than I was 26 years ago. This is going to be a fun team to coach. We’ve got a long ways to go, but that’s the beauty of it. We come in every day and our job is to make sure we make Purdue football better than we were yesterday.”
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue football begins spring practice: here’s what Barry Odom had to say
